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Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 71
Fresh: 71 | Rotten: 0

Deliver Us From Evil is a superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep's clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O'Grady's victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking.

100

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Critic Reviews: 26
Fresh: 26 | Rotten: 0

Deliver Us From Evil is a superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep's clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O'Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O'Grady's victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking.

audience

79

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 16,432

My Rating

Movie Info

Filmmaker Amy Berg recounts a harrowing story of child abuse and how a serial child molester went free for the better part of two decades in this documentary. Oliver O'Grady was a Catholic priest who served in a number of parishes in Southern California during the 1970s and '80s. O'Grady was also a habitual child molester who abused dozens of youngsters who were entrusted to his care, and while his superiors in the church were aware of O'Grady's crimes as early as 1973, they opted to simply move

Unrated, 1 hr. 43 min.

Documentary

May 8, 2007

Lionsgate Films

All Critics (71) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (71) | Rotten (0) | DVD (3)

Deliver Us Evil is more terrifying than any horror movie, because it's about something that really happened.

December 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Works best when it concentrates on O'Grady and the ever-rippling effect of his transgressions.

November 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

No report I have seen takes us so disturbingly inside the mind of the abuser as Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil.

November 9, 2006 Comment
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Deliver Us From Evil has a few things wrong with it, including an egregious musical score, but without resorting to sucker punches, it takes your breath away while making your skin crawl.

November 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | Comment
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A stunning indictment of institutional betrayal. It plays like a Catholic Watergate, going right to the top with hard evidence that stuns, dismays and sickens.

October 27, 2006 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
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The church declined to comment to Berg. Her film speaks volumes about its silence -- and about a wrong that can never be righted.

October 27, 2006 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The film is painful viewing, in large part because director Amy Berg relates the facts and depicts the victims and the culprits with detached gravity.

April 23, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | Comment
Boston Phoenix

Berg's intuitively right ratio of personal and analytical material, her implied belief in transcendence of horrific demoralization, shows a truly progressive vision.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review | Comment (1)
Sacramento News & Review

This is a powerful film that will horrify you and make you angry, if you dare to see it.

July 26, 2007 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment
Laramie Movie Scope

The polemical is never as powerful as the personal and O'Grady's part of the story illuminates the whole with nauseating clarity.

May 18, 2007 Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | Comment
Sydney Morning Herald

Um relato avassalador sobre a demagogia dos altos escalões da Igreja Católica, que prefere proteger seus interesses corporativos a impedir abusos contra crianças.

May 15, 2007 Comment
Cinema em Cena

A sobering look at paedophilia in the Catholic Church, Amy Berg's gripping documentary reveals disturbing facts, but even more disturbingly, about its cover up.

May 13, 2007 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

Although each story is compelling, among the most heart-wrenching may be that of the Japanese-Irish couple who welcomed the new parish priest, who often slept over at their house, and who now feel responsible for letting the wolf in their door.

March 9, 2007 Comment
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A riveting, emotionally charged and startling big-screen experience. But it does more than just deliver to filmgoers. It may find a Holy Grail of real societal change for a larger constituency.

March 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Journal International | Comment
Film Journal International

Berg's portrait of a sociopath is as chilling as any in recent memory.

January 31, 2007 Full Review Source: Reeler | Comment

Some films make you think, some make you cry, and others make you cringe. "Deliver Us From Evil," which catalogs the destruction caused by a child-molesting Catholic priest, inspires all three reactions.

December 14, 2006 Full Review Source: Arizona Daily Star | Comment
Arizona Daily Star

[Amy] Berg has crafted a disturbing and well-made documentary that sheds additional light on this continuously unfolding scandal.

December 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Murphy's Movie Reviews | Comment
Murphy's Movie Reviews

Berg makes a compelling case that this is THE scandal of an American generation.

November 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Zertinet Movies | Comment
Zertinet Movies

Watching Amy Berg's powerful documentary Deliver Us from Evil is a wrenching experience; her subjects reveal to the camera almost unbearable levels of anguish, and its audience walks away feeling both numbness and rage.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Times | Comment
Seattle Times

A compelling piece of journalism arguing O'Grady is one of hundreds of 'sexualized' priests shielded by an absolute bureaucracy that's been corrupted absolutely.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Oregonian | Comment
Oregonian

Devastating.

November 10, 2006 Comment

A documentary with the power to affect even the most jaded of moviegoers.

November 10, 2006 Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | Comment
Creative Loafing

It is a heartbreaking story of betrayed trust, broken faith and the misuse of privilege.

November 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Deliver Us From Evil

If whatever is shown in this film is true, it's weird to know that churches are better off serving the devils than helping the victims. 'Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind' would have been appropriate for this flick.

December 19, 2010
imrealgod

Super Reviewer

A powerful and thought provoking piece of work that tackles the hypocrisy of not religion, but organised religion. It is disturbing and will stay with any viewer long after they have seen it. The films real success comes in Oliver O'Grady who talks about his crimes in such a matter of fact tone, that it is clear to see

January 26, 2009
kiriyamakazou

Super Reviewer

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